1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-implemented stochastic optimization modeling, and more particularly, to the use of computer-implemented stochastic optimization modeling to solve problems arising in connection with budgeting initial responses for managing wildfires.
2. Background Description
An enterprise charged with the management of wildfires typically confronts multiple scenarios corresponding to representative wild-land fires occurring in different fire planning seasons. Each such scenario is contingent in the sense that wildfire managers are unable to predict wildfires.
Prior art solutions have involved running a large number of simulations of annual fire season scenarios and evaluating (using a predetermined deployment plan) a candidate resource organization against the samples. Such approaches suffer from two types of problems. First, the solution quality is tied to the choice of the initial candidate solution. In addition, the deployment plan does not optimize the use of available resources in the candidate organization. Thus, neither the selection nor the evaluation of the resource organization is guided by the choice of the optimization objective, and hence, any budget developed using such approaches is anything but strategic. As a result, prior art solutions are not fully satisfactory.